~ Mimi's Adventures in Crafting ~

The musings and adventures of a "forty-something" wife and mother whose inner-artisan has been reignited. Enter my realm and enjoy....

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Another Christmas Quickie...

Did the title peak your interest? Alas it is not what you may be thinking…

Now that I have shamelessly drawn you in…I am working diligently to get all my Christmas sewing projects done before Christmas Eve is upon us; which is only next Thursday!!! Can you believe the holiday is almost here??? Yikes.

I just finished up another gift for my daughter. It is a gift that you can quickly put together with a small amount of materials. My daughter has a body pillow she purchased in Target last year and no longer cares for the cover she purchased with it so I decided I’d make her a new one for Christmas. Prior to heading to Joann’s I thought maybe a plaid flannel fabric…inspiration was lacking when I walked into the store.

Once there I realized I picked the right day to head into Joann’s (Joann.com) for they were having their fleece on sale for $ 2.99/yard. What a bargain and I quickly went about trying to find the perfect fabric for her cover. Because she is into “Western” type gear and decorations I looked for similar designs in the fabric and quickly found the perfect fabric for her. A beautiful royal blue fleece with cowboy boots and horseshoes on it…what luck…literally…horseshoes and luck go hand in hand!!!

To make the pillow cover I purchased an 18 inch zipper, thread and 1 ¼ yds. of 56-60” wide fleece. I cut two rectangles from the fleece that were 21 inches by 55 inches; ½ inch seams are included in those figures.

• Serge one 21 inch edge on each rectangle just skimming the edge and not trimming any fabric off

• Take these serged 21 inch edges of fabric, right sides together, stitch as follows:

• ½ inch seam - start with regular stitching for 1 ½ inches, back tack and then baste where the zipper will be, then back tack at 1 ½ inches and finish with regular stitching. Adjust these measurements based upon your pillow size and zipper.

• Press open and install zipper as you usually would. I use wonder tape to baste the zipper down and then I open out the seams and sew the zipper tabs down on each side of the pressed center seam.

• I then flipped to the right side and top-stitched around the zipper at top, sides and bottom.

• Very carefully remove your basting stitches and open your zipper.

• With rights sides together, sew both long edges and finally the last short edge. I stitched with my conventional machine first and then went back and serged the edges without trimming any fabric. I just skimmed the edges once again.

• Turn right sides out and your are done and now have a wonderful Christmas Quickie pillow cover…Enjoy :-D